That's a rugby term for a group of big guys pushing hard against each other to get to a particular place.

Only, in this case, Jon Corzine means the men and, maybe, women eager to replace him if, for example, he gets drafted into the administration of President Barack Obama. If there is an administration of President Barack Obama.

"Oh, I know, there will be quite a scrum if" - he pauses and then doesn't say anything about a federal appointment - "if I get hit by a truck. A second time."

In two separate interviews, Corzine said he would "probably" not join the feds - if the feds are run by Democrats - and that he would simply not join the administration.

"I love New Jersey," he says, a good trait for its governor. "I'm doing now what I'll be doing for the rest of my life, staying here until I'm done with being governor."

Just by chance, however, members of the scrum say they are ready. Even willing to speak. Some circumspectly. Some not.

"I'm ready," says Richard Codey, who once was acting governor and often still is when Corzine is out of town. He said that before he left here Wednesday. He is back in Jersey now, acting governor again. "I'd be ready to pull that lever," he says, referring to his name on some future ballot.

Codey and others in the scrum say they do not believe Corzine will leave the Statehouse, and no one is talking about a primary challenge against a man with so much money.

But Bill Pascrell might have a question. He is just as direct. Maybe more so.

"Yeah, I could do it," says Pascrell, the representative from the 8th Congressional District, mostly in Passaic and Essex counties, and a veteran of many campaigns. "If Ronald Reagan could be elected president at 73, I could be elected governor of New Jersey at 71."

Pascrell waxes philosophical about Corzine, saying he believes the governor's nearly fatal accident a year ago sapped him of any ambition to leave the governorship before the end of his first term - the way he left his first term as senator.

"He's a different man."

Joseph DeVincenzo, the Essex County executive, says that "people are talking about my running - someday." And maybe, well, if Corzine goes, he might think about it.

"But right now, I'm just thinking about Essex County."

Barbara Buono, a state senator from Middlesex County, says she is not thinking of the possibility "right now."

How about later? "I can't think about that right now," she says.

It gets a little complicated when some members of the scrum nominate others. Cory Booker, for example, the mayor of Newark, dismisses any thought that he might jump in. "My roots are deep in Newark now," he says.

But he would campaign for Dana Redd, a member of the Camden City Council and second in command of the state Democratic committee.

"You're going to be hearing a lot about her," he says.

George Norcross, the South Jersey power broker, says he thinks U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews - who just lost a Senate primary fight to Frank Lautenberg - might make a good candidate.

Andrews, however, dismisses the thought as "corrosive."

"We shouldn't be speculating like that," he says.

Others who seem almost offended by any speculation that Corzine might leave include House members Frank Pallone and Steve Rothman. U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez says he sees his future in the Senate, and Lautenberg, asked to speculate about the next governor, says, "I can't think that far ahead."

The betting among most Democrats is that Corzine will stay. In any event, Obama could lose, and it's not likely a McCain administration would want the New Jersey governor.